Open story world:Aftermath

Hello everyone I have created an open story world where anyone who wants to write a story based on the setting of the story can do so.

There are only a few rules to posting a story in this setting.

1:No sex with kids, even those this is a grimdark world where such a thing would happen if this story setting was real I find the thought of messing with kids to be a bad thing and I'm sure such a thing is against the rules of this site, however killing kids in the context of this story world is ok but not a nesscery thing.

2:No characters from other sources such as games and what not, original content only please and thank you.

3:If you wish to use a location or some such that has been posted to this thread/story setting by some one else get their permission first and if they refuse abide by their decision.

Other then these simple rules anything goes I hope you will enjoy what is posted in this thread and if you decide to add to this story world I hope you will have fun doing so.

I also want to thank Sickerton for his feedback and help in fleshing out this story world as well as his help in editing the intro.

**********

Earth 2021

It has been half a decade since the Earth was blindsided by a large meteorite; bringing with it a terrible, alien plague alongside the expected ruin and destruction as it landed. In the years following mankind as a whole entered a downward spiral. Nations, claiming that the outbreak was a sneak attack by their enemies, spent what little time that could have been used to save themselves at each others' throats. Thus mankind plunged into a final war; at first with each other, but eventually against a now terribly unfamiliar world.

Few survived the double-pronged attack of man and plague, and fewer still survived unscathed. The usual culprits were present: Casualties of combat, deformities caused by fallout and biological warfare, riots and starvation... but now, stranger hazards reared their heads. Roughly one-fourth of those who survived the original outbreak were left sterile, and due to lopsided rates of death only one male remained for every six females. Amongst the more explainable mutations there began to appear much more elaborate and bizarre monstrosities; humans, plants and animals alike sculpted by unknown forces into horrifying new forms for unspeakable purposes. These mutants turned on the unchanged whenever possible; using them for resources, food, pleasure or as breeding stock interchangeably.

The world itself had been irrevocably scarred as well, left just as diseased as its inhabitants. Allowed to grow unstable during the chaos, nuclear power plants melted down and power grids fell into eternal slumber. Storages for industrial waste and chemicals, likewise left unsupervised, eventually began to leak their toxins. And, of course, the strange infection from beyond the stars takes root and spreads it's taint across the land in an ever growing variety of ways.

In a world of unimaginable hardship and savagery -- from the blighted land, from the twisted horrors, and especially from minds technically untainted but grown dark by necessity -- humans scramble and fight one another for three primary resources: Food, water and... companions.

New terrors may have arrived from distant lands, but the best monsters are still home grown.

Hello everyone I have created an open story world where anyone who wants to write a story based on the setting of the story can do so.

There are only a few rules to posting a story in this setting.

1:No sex with kids, even those this is a grimdark world where such a thing would happen if this story setting was real I find the thought of messing with kids to be a bad thing and I'm sure such a thing is against the rules of this site, however killing kids in the context of this story world is ok but not a nesscery thing.

2:No characters from other sources such as games and what not, original content only please and thank you.

3:If you wish to use a location or some such that has been posted to this thread/story setting by some one else get their permission first and if they refuse abide by their decision.

Other then these simple rules anything goes I hope you will enjoy what is posted in this thread and if you decide to add to this story world I hope you will have fun doing so.

I also want to thank Sickerton for his feedback and help in fleshing out this story world as well as his help in editing the intro.

**********

Earth 2021

It has been half a decade since the Earth was blindsided by a large meteorite; bringing with it a terrible, alien plague alongside the expected ruin and destruction as it landed. In the years following mankind as a whole entered a downward spiral. Nations, claiming that the outbreak was a sneak attack by their enemies, spent what little time that could have been used to save themselves at each others' throats. Thus mankind plunged into a final war; at first with each other, but eventually against a now terribly unfamiliar world.

Few survived the double-pronged attack of man and plague, and fewer still survived unscathed. The usual culprits were present: Casualties of combat, deformities caused by fallout and biological warfare, riots and starvation... but now, stranger hazards reared their heads. Roughly one-fourth of those who survived the original outbreak were left sterile, and due to lopsided rates of death only one male remained for every six females. Amongst the more explainable mutations there began to appear much more elaborate and bizarre monstrosities; humans, plants and animals alike sculpted by unknown forces into horrifying new forms for unspeakable purposes. These mutants turned on the unchanged whenever possible; using them for resources, food, pleasure or as breeding stock interchangeably.

The world itself had been irrevocably scarred as well, left just as diseased as its inhabitants. Allowed to grow unstable during the chaos, nuclear power plants melted down and power grids fell into eternal slumber. Storages for industrial waste and chemicals, likewise left unsupervised, eventually began to leak their toxins. And, of course, the strange infection from beyond the stars takes root and spreads it's taint across the land in an ever growing variety of ways.

In a world of unimaginable hardship and savagery -- from the blighted land, from the twisted horrors, and especially from minds technically untainted but grown dark by necessity -- humans scramble and fight one another for three primary resources: Food, water and... companions.

New terrors may have arrived from distant lands, but the best monsters are still home grown.

Click to expand...

THE PIG PEOPLE:
In what use to be Las Vagas now just a hovalish small town with a population of over 100 humans, A small group is hunting down three strange half human half pig like people.

The group is led by a man named Kreiger, A large heavily built man who is hell bent on the survival of his town. Kreiger has seen a lot of things in his time, he watched as his mother, wife and eldest son die of various things like viruses and suicide. Kreiger is now a bitter bitter man who is very stern and sometimes cold.

the three pig like people he is chasing Are siblings named 25 year old Aria, 16 year old Cas and 12 year old Lapa. All three who were pigs to begin with, grew into humanoid like creatures. They have pinkish skin, a snout and ears like a pig. the two girls Aria and Lapa are very curvy and thick while there brother Cas is chunky and chubby. Aria with curly blonde hair is warring a half jacket and a small bra that clings and barely held her D cup breasts in place, being on the primal side she wore nothing else to cover her thick bottom. Lapa"s hair was long and brown, she wore about the same except for she had on small panties that cut into her fat, their brother Cas who has short brownish hair wore nothing but a loincloth and a dirty brown shirt. Most of their muscles and meat in the lower part of their bodies is now mostly a jello like softer fat. So they are rather weaker then a normal human.

The pig people once lived with the humans here but they soon proved problematic when the pig people were eating and stealing most of the food supply. most of them were killed or driven out of the town. The humans later found out that the pig peoples fat and meat could be used for clothing and medicine and rich rich food. So they were sought after and hunted.

These three pig siblings were trying to steel food but the mission went wrong and they lost two of their members, Now they are on the run for their lives trying to get back to their boreders for safety.

" This.... way (snort) " The shapely Aria says being very exhausted and sweaty. They all run to the left under an old burnt out car. The siblings were huffing and puffing and there is a lot of jiggling for they were not in the best shape. They duck under some rubble and found a cave.
" We...(oink) will be safe." Says Aria. Cas sits and holds his little sister Lapa. " I want to (snooort) go (oink) home." Lapa cries and snorts hugging her borthers fleshy belly. Aria paces back and fourth too busy trying to think of a plan to notice her beautiful but large bubble butt bouncing and wobbling. " What are we gonna do? (Snort)" Asked Cas. " I dont know Cas stop asking me that." Aria replied. " I only asked you once." said Cas innocently. " CAS STOP! IM THINKING (ZZZZOOINK) " Aria screamed making a grotesque snorting sound. Her soccer ball sized belly jiggles as she scolds him.

Suddenly they hear a voice. "You pigs are so loud, we have been listening to you for about five minutes." It was Kreiger. Aria swings her head in fear making her large breast almost pop out. Lapa begins to sob and cry. " Run, (oink) climb up there out of the cave. " Aria points to a small hole on top of a mound of trash. " You go ahead (Snoort) I'll hold them ( oink ) off." Cas says as he takes a fighting posture. Aria being a bit of a coward, grabs her little sister and head for the hole not looking back once. Kreiger walks up to the young boy. Cas looks up at the semi muscular Kreiger.
He swallows out of fear and his chunky belly quivers from his body shaking in fear. meanwhile, Aria is pushing on Lapa's fleshy booty to boost her up the wall. But because of Lapa's weak upper body and somewhat heavy bottom weight, its hard for her to climb. " C'mon (Oink) Lapa, get up there." Aria strains. " Im trying." Lapa cries.

Kreiger then gives Cas a devastating blow to Cas's soft face. (WWAAM) Breaking his face, neck and shaking his brain. Cas falls back limp and dead. "Hold ur fire men, i'll do this myself." Kreiger then runs over and grabs Aria by her soft hips and belly. " PUT ME DOWN YOU BITCH!! (OOOINK)" She gets thrown to the ground hitting her head knocking her out. Kreiger then comes face to face with 12 year old Lapa. teras ran down lapa'a face. She is horrified. Kreiger kneels down and puts his left hand on her shoulder. " This wont hurt ok." Kreiger says. she then tries to fight and struggle but it was pointless. He then grabs her by the face, her belly jiggles and swings as she struggles to break free. " Mmmmmmph (sssnnnnnoort) mmm" Her muffled screams mixed with pig snorts could be heard threw out the cave. Kreiger with his right hand making a sword like knife hand stabs her in her soft jello like pot belly. Lapa eyes roll up and her tongue flops out of her mouth. The jiggly preteen falls back dead on the ground making a ugly gurgling noise.

Aira wakes up to find her sister and her brother dead. " NOOOOOOO!" She screams. As she turns to face Kreiger her big soft pot belly is met with a powerful and destructive punch from Kreiger. " ZZZZZZZZOOOIINK??!!" Aria lets out an inhuman death like noise. Her large breasts flop out of her bra making a slapping noise. Her booty, hips and big thighs shake, jiggle and wiggle from the impact. Her eyes widen and roll to the back of her head and her mouth flies wide open. Her belly is completely destroyed, his fist had disappeared into her fat. " You are gonna make a fine dinner." Kreiger says with a grin. She stumbles back holding her blown out belly. Not believing she's dead, her body takes two steps forward toward the opening. Then she her body convulses and lets out a nasty sounding snort then she falls forward ass up face down.

Later that night, the village feasted on the meat of the three pig siblings and continued to make clothing of their fat. Kreiger stood in silence with a strange almost sorrowful look.

Phyr balled her fists and fumed. She knew she was numbering her days with this; but dammit, someone had to do it.

One step behind her, flanking either side, stood two armed guards. These sentries would probably be the ones to end her if things went any further south, but in truth they were little more than decorations. The true threat -- even now pulling all attention despite distractedly sorting through paperwork -- was the leader of their "tribe".

When civilization as a whole crumbled into chaos and ruin, there was no shortage of warrior-king -- pardon, warrior-queen -- types to eventually rise from the rubble and start banding survivors together under their banners. Most were fairly straightforward; I'm strong, you're not, join me, ect. You knew what you were getting into from the titles they latched onto while being elevated into legend by their followers. Skullcrusher. Bear-Claw. Boomstick. Crackbone.

The woman seated in front of Phyr now was called... Lighthouse. And this was just the start of her oddities.

As it is with all "warlords", she had a throneroom. In concept. In practice, she had a folding chair and a card table. Certain fanatical underlings would occasionally try to doll them up to be more imposing -- a skull here, some scrapmetal bolted on there, red and black paint liberally splattered everywhere -- but it was never long before Lighthouse removed the additions herself without ceremony. She valued them being small and portable so much more than anything else. This was a recurring theme with her.

Her table was an organized mess; always completely covered with maps, books, and any other documents she thought could be of use in the near future. One would imagine the ruler of a nomadic looter tribe slouched in their seat, jaw on their hand as they stared off into the distance with a furrowed brow, but the reality was more like walking in on an accountant filing taxes.

Not that anyone would ever mistake Lighthouse for a timid little paper pusher. Despite her lack of flair, she still made her mark the old-fashioned way. It had seemed like ages since the mysterious woman arrived alone from the west, but she wasted no time in recruiting survivors; uniting gangs smart enough to submit to her, and crushing those that did not. Through wits and charisma as well as brawn, she and her growing army blazed a path through the land on their trek ever eastward. Carving one out themselves, when necessary.

Lighthouse finally looked up from her papers, and bore into Phyr with a stare far too intense for what she was actually working with. The warlord had a bare, open socket where her right eye should be. Phyr was fairly new to the tribe, but she had always assumed that her nickname stemmed from this: A single eye, absurdly bright and watching everywhere at once. The long, winding scar which started at their leader's forehead and hooked over to her right socket before crossing her lips and finishing at her jawline gave the loss some context; but at the same time raised several layers of new questions forever left unanswered.

This was not the only notable trait their leader sported, either. Her dirty blonde hair, unkempt and almost perpetually windswept due to their constant travels, often elicited comparisons to a lion's mane from passerby. A small necklace with a locket hung between her breasts; rumors had come and gone about it containing things like a valuable jewel or a photograph of a lost love, but all of her close companions knew that it merely housed a magnetic compass. She wore an old leather duster to help stave off the searing sun of this hellhole once called Arizona; but at this point, after so much heavy wear and tear, it could more accurately be described as a ragged cape with sleeves.

All in all, not someone to pick a fight with.

Which meant that it was long overdue.

"I'm sorry..." Lighthouse began calmly, setting aside her current batch of papers, "...but I don't see what the problem is."

Phyr bit her lip and tried not to melt down right there. This was clearly going to be like pulling teeth, and she never had much in the way of patience.

"You don't see a problem?" She replied as slow as she could manage, so to listen to her own tone and reel it back if it got too hard. "Isn't the fact that I'm here a problem?"

Lighthouse raised an eyebrow, and cocked her head slightly.

"Yeeees, I guess it is? Would you like me, ah, to fix tha-"

"Stop playing games!" Phyr shouted, as she stepped forward and slammed a fist onto the table. "You know damn well what I mean!"

Phyr glared straight into Lighthouse's one brilliant eye, and Lighthouse stared right back. The only motion made in the following silence was a small wave by Lighthouse, commanding the now on-edge guards to lower their pistols.

For a moment, one could almost feel an electrical charge in the air.

Then Lighthouse slowly broke into a grin, and the fog of menace was gone just like that.

"Alright. Refresh my memory."

-=-​

In truth, Lighthouse was well aware why her newest second-in command was so furious. How couldn't she? After all, it was why Phyr got that "promotion" in the first place.

Phyr, while a good kid and a damn fine shot when given gun privileges, was still pretty wet behind the ears. She had been picked up around what used to be the border of California, and had rapidly proven herself quite the skirmisher, but ideally that wouldn't be enough to snag spot two in the chain of command. She was just in the right position as... a slot opened.

Her last #2, a deceptively lithe brunette by the name of Ven, was quite a piece of work. She could hold her own in a brawl -- and in fact was well versed in knife fighting to an an almost unnerving degree -- but that was not all she had going. She was always there and ready for anything, utterly reliable in a pinch, great to bounce ideas off of, and was not afraid to make big decisions on her own if the need arose.

Perhaps Lighthouse should have paid more attention to that last part.

The most recent outpost they came across was different from the others. Everything was going smoothly -- they even agreed to "integrate" without so much as a fuss -- but when it finally came time for a head count something amazing was discovered:

Kids.

Kids, a toddler, and even a newborn. All of them born well after everything went to hell. Knowing what this meant, it wasn't long before the new additions were coerced into coughing up the man and woman, ah, responsible.

Now strategically speaking, each half of this couple was worth more than their own weight in gold. The aftereffects of that damned outbreak left most ladies with barren wombs. This girl they had found could quite literally be a last hope for the survival for humanity as a whole. And the man... well, was a man. Men didn't get their junk all messed up during the really troubled times like the gals, oh no. They were just massacred. Chances are that if you could find a man they'd be able to do the deed just fine, but they were essentially a modern unicorn after all the meat grinders they were put through.

Lighthouse didn't really see much personal use for either of them, since the last thing they were going to do was settle down to repopulate, but they would certainly be huge bargaining chips for any bartering in the future. So they were taken as "spoils", and while treated decently enough were isolated from the rest of the clan and one another via a personal "bodyguard" each.

In hindsight, it was probably a terrible idea to let Ven oversee this.

The clan had awoken today to find the male breeder gone; his quarters empty, his guard dead. The expertly slashed throat of the corpse left no doubt as to who was responsible, and it was soon discovered that other members of the tribe had also gone "missing". In total, Ven had made off under the cover of night with their man, three other deserters, and a pistol looted from the guard.

It was obvious why Phyr would be out for blood after that.

Goddamn stupid, but still obvious.

-=-​

"You know..." Lighthouse began after Phyr said her piece, "...you already have Ven's old spot. You don't have to kill the previous holder to take their title, or anything."

"That's not the point." Phyr growled, leaning over the table. "I may be new to this group, but I know how they work. Everything you have going here hinges on you being seen as more of an icon than a person; something unbeatable, something infallible. If these traitors are not hunted down and made examples of, people are going to start wondering exactly why they put so much trust in you."

Lighthouse's one eye briefly locked with Phyr's, before turning downwards as she started to rifle through documents.

"Let's say I agree with you one hundred percent." Lighthouse replied. "I don't, but just suppose. Using extra resources to reclaim a happy accident and get a little vengeance has more to it than throwing good money after bad. Fair enough. Ven and her party of exiles left under cover of night, and had up until this very second to move as fast as they can in any possible direction."

Lighthouse slid a worn, crinkled map across the table, rotating it so that it was facing Phyr.

"If you want to go get them, first point out where they are on this."

Phyr took deep breaths, and tried to keep calm.

"That. Isn't. Funny."

Lighthouse had made a valid point, but to anyone who knew her it was clear what she was trying to do. The map she had just produced was only a partial one. All of the maps they had were partial ones. Every time they settled down in a temporary outpost, one of the first things Lighthouse always did was gather up their maps to cut off all the space west of their current location. It was a symbolic gesture: There was only one direction they could possibly go. The land behind them might as well not exist, and thus was treated as such.

"You know damn well where they went." Phyr continued, feeling a headache starting to come on from the frustration. "I know where I'd go to run, and Ven knew you better than anyone else. They headed straight west."

"Well then," Lighthouse replied lightly with a shrug, "they're gone."

"BULL-SHIT!"

The guards, while still minding their orders, couldn't help but finger the triggers of their guns as Phyr sent papers flying with a table pound and leaned in even further to shout into their leader's face.

"I don't know why you get your panties in a twist about backtracking, but I am goddamn sick of it! And I just got here! Ven must have been a saint, dealing with this shit for so long! Do you know what will happen if people start catching wise? That all they need to do to throw off the ire of the great Lighthouse forever is find magnetic north and turn left? Think, you goddamn cyclops!"

Phyr paused to catch her breath, and watched with morbid interest as flecks of her own spittle slowly rolled down the face of their emperor-queen.

Lighthouse let the moment set for an almost unbearably long stretch, before finally replying in a low and even voice.

"I think... that you are the type who would follow an enemy off a cliff, just for the satisfaction of seeing them splatter first."

Phyr, in a huff, drew back and turned around.

"Fine. Be that way, you coward. I'm going to fix this, and if you feel like shooting me in the back as I go to save your reputation so be it."

Phyr stomped out of the room, and the two sentries could only watch her leave in befuddlement before turning back to their leader.

"So, uh..." the braver of the two finally began. "Do you want us to..."

"No." Lighthouse responded. "I'll do it."

She then picked up a discarded book and found her previously earmarked page before adding "Eventually."

-=-​

The small, mousy woman stood up on top of her seat, shading her eyes against the relentless sun.

"Alright... alright."

Sitting back down, and buckling her seatbelt, she let her companions in on her discovery.

"Keep heading straight down the road. Go slow, though, so I can let you know when they veered off."

Phyr turned back from facing the girl, and with a nod to the driver they were off again.

Phyr may have been a relatively new addition to Lighthouse's crew, but that did not mean she was a loner by any means. While the spectacle she put on back at the camp meant that she would not be getting any official support for this venture, she had quite enough in the way of friendships and favors to scrounge together a decent enough team on the way out.

The least personal, but still likely the most important, was the woman currently driving. A gearhead through and through, she was both the owner and maintainer of the impressively tricked-out jeep they were currently trucking along in. With a bandanna wrapped around her face and a set of goggles over her eyes she could have been pretty much anyone; and honestly, Phyr got the feeling that she preferred things that way. She wasn't much of a talker, to the point that most didn't even know her actual name. The only reason she was along for this ride at all was because Phyr got her out of a particularly nasty ambush once, and while not sentimental by any means a debt was a debt.

Behind her, jostling about in her far-too-big seat and trying to keep her large round spectacles from flying out of the vehicle, was the opposite side of the spectrum. The daughter of Californian "free thinkers" who raised her in some hippie congregation out in the middle of nowhere, Destiny Moonbeam (usually going by "Des" to avoid the inevitable groans) had history with Phyr long before they hooked up with Lighthouse. It was a chance meeting, but in the long run probably saved both of their lives. While Des was just as frail as one would expect, and left most of the physical work to Phyr, it turned out that living out in the wilderness like a goddamn animal came with some benefits. She was an expert forager, scrounger and tracker; the last of which currently coming in handy to hunt down their current targets.

And in the final seat -- a happy middle ground between the others -- Kim clutched her backpack of supplies against her camo tanktop and watched the world go by. She was Phyr's assigned squad buddy on normal expeditions, and they had been through more than enough in their relatively short time together to foster something approaching a friendship. She was more than a little gruff, and prided herself in that, but the fact that she even agreed to come along on this wild goose chase betrayed a hint of a softer side somewhere under that thick hide.

"So..." Kim finally broke the ice, switching her gaze to Phyr as she turned around for the conversation. "...you got any intel on the girls we're after who aren't Ven?"

"Glad you asked!" Phyr replied, and took out a handful of photographs from her pocket to pass around the truck.

-=-​

It was standard practice to have one or more pictures of every tribe member, at the very least to keep track of the general population number. It helped keep some semblance of order during all of the moving they did, and there was more than enough unlooted photography supplies in every former tourist trap they came across to keep it up for ages. Phyr had used this to assemble a few -- for lack of a better word -- dossiers of the runners in preparation for her talk with Lighthouse, but they would serve just as well for this purpose as well.

"First up," Phyr began while passing out photographs of a scrappy looking ginger woman, "Is Carla."

"Huh." Kim muttered. "Looks like that old burger joint girl. If you found her in the middle of a barfight, I mean."

"I, uh like her hair." Des chimed in, trying to contribute to the conversation.

"Anyways..." Phyr continued without comment, "she typically did scout duty for the tribe. Good eye, and a real survivalist-type. If they didn't give that one pistol they're packing to the breeder, this girl probably has it."

"That makes sense," Kim said thoughtfully, "but why are you so sure about that?"

"Because you haven't seen the other two yet." Phyr replied.

Up next were a series of photos sporting an athletically toned lady with raven-black hair. She seemed extremely happy in every shot; perhaps unnervingly so. Her large, toothy grin seemed to go just a bit too wide for comfort, and the tiny pinpricks of her pupils only cranked the sense of wrongness up to tangible levels.

"This is Moor. Apparently she was found as the sole survivor of an outpost sacked long before Lighthouse even got to it. They never managed to get her to explain what happened there, but no one really wanted to know after seeing the aftermath."

Des grimaced at the photograph handed to her, of Moor posing with the corpses of a successful skirmish like a game hunter with trophies. Trying not to mess up the Gearhead's car interior with vomit, she quickly passed it back to Phyr.

"Moor wouldn't kill you with a gun" Phyr concluded. "The most she would do is maybe hobble you with a couple shots to the limbs. She's... playful like that."

Phyr collected the Moor photos, and began to pass out her final set. It was only seconds after the first was handed over before Kim started shouting.

"Oh shit. Oh shit! They have Bertha?"

The woman in the photo Kim was holding in her now unsteady grasp was... well, exactly the type of person one would imagine for the name "Bertha". Short-cut hair, so not to get in the way. Huge in every regard; tall, wide, thick. Details on where this mountain with legs got picked up was a little hazy, but the most common joke around camp was that she fell through a hole in time from the Jurassic era. Not because she was a cavewoman, because she was a dinosaur.

"This is a problem." Kim carried on. "This is a big, BIG problem."

The Gearhead, only passively listening as she drove up until this point, finally joined in. "So veer for her?"

"Hell no!" Kim shot back. "She'd catch the jeep!"

Kim was stretching the truth here, but not by as much as one would hope. This Bertha woman was a throwback to the days of berserker vikings; gleefully plunging into warzones with nothing more then her bare hands and a smile, only to later return with a collection of severed heads and new sets of scars to show off. She was not so much a teammate as a sentient bomb, something designed to throw into the middle of an enemy formation then run from.

The only solace to be found here was that yes, Phyr was right. Bertha would never use a gun. That would be unsporting.

"So now that that's out of the way..." Phyr finished, turning completely around in her seat to face Kim proper, "What have you got in your bag of tricks for us?"

It was obvious what Kim was bringing for herself -- the machete strapped to her hip might as well have been nailed directly onto her body for how much she prized it -- but she also made a habit of carrying around a backpack for other mission weaponry. She usually sported a pretty good selection... but as Kim fidgeted in her seat, Phyr began to worry.

"I, uh, have this for you."

Unzipping her backpack, Kim pulled out and quickly passed an aluminum softball bat to Phyr. It was in decent shape, and could undoubtedly crack a skull or two if need be, but it was... underwhelming.

"Uh, thanks?" Phyr said, examining her new tool of destruction.

"Hey, I work with what I can get." Kim tried to reason. "The armory gals weren't exactly going to break out big guns for a lady who just spat in the boss' face."

This gave Phyr a moment of pause. Was that the story getting passed around at camp? Oh my. Things were going to be awkward when they got back, to say the least.

"I, uh, also thought that this was just going to be me and you" Kim continued apologetically. "Didn't bring anything along for sunshine over there."

Kim turned and addressed Des directly. "You don't mind, do you? No offense, but it doesn't seem like you're going to be jumping into the thick of it."

Des smiled but played with her fingers in idle worry; thoughts of the 'playful' psychopath and flesh-titan running through her mind. "Well, I don't want to, but I'd certainly feel safer if I had something."

"Toolbox." the Gearhead interjected.

"What?"

"Toolbox. By your feet. Crowbar in it."

Des looked down, and sure enough there it was. After a few moments of maneuvering and prying, the little hippy girl soon had a weapon of her own

Des was soon able to point out the spot where their targets had gone off the road, and as they slowly tracked the faint footprints all they had left to do was hammer out possible strategies.

Ven's party left under cover of darkness, and as stealthily as possible. While this did give them a head start, it also hindered them in a good deal of ways. Vehicles, being extremely valuable comoddities, would have attracted far too much attention and thus they set off on foot. Weaponry was much the same; they probably had nothing with them except the looted pistol and Ven's combat knives, and it would be a cold day in hell before Ven shared her babies. Phyr had discovered that some camping supplies had gone missing in her brief research, so they probably weren't going to die of exposure or hunger out here, but that also meant that it would probably be that much easier to spot their campsite.

So while Ven's group did have the only firearm, if they could catch them by surprise and take out whoever had it right at the start there shouldn't be much in the way of hurdles after that.

Ideally.

-=-​

The jeep crested a hill and stopped, not even waiting for the order to do so. The Gearhead didn't need Des to tell her what was in front of them.

Down the other side of the hill, in a natural, shallow valley, were a set of tents and a burnt out campfire. The campsite was set up amongst a spattering of impressively large boulders, on which several clothes were spread out to dry in the sun. It was still too far to tell exactly who was down there, but a moving figure proved that the residents had not packed up and left just jet.

"Well we found 'em" Kim muttered, unbuckling her seatbelt to lean forward and get a better view. "Do you think they can see u-"

A distant pop rang out, and sparks flew as a bullet pinged off the frame of their windshield.

"I guess that answers that!" Kim shouted, right before being flung back into her seat as the Gearhead floored the accelerator.

-=-​

The first few bullets went wild, as the shooter got used to the wind and her advancing target. But as the jeep drew closer, and thus larger, shots began to find their marks.

Most of the jeep's occupants ducked down low to avoid the incoming fire, but the Gearhead had no such luxury if they didn't want to zoom blindly right past their targets. It is thus that she left herself wide open, for better and for worse.

The vehicle swerved briefly as a bullet went through her right shoulder, but she quickly got it back under control. The next round to land, blowing a hole in her jaw, caused her to whip back in her seat. But her foot remained on the pedal, and the vehicle stayed on point.

-=-​

Carla spread her stance wider, steadied her aim, and let off a few more shots at where the driver should be seated. Surely some of these must be hitting home. That thing looked pretty kitted out, but as far as she knew no one had found anything with a bulletproof windshield yet.

Standing her ground, and calmly emptying her lungs, she continued to lay into the approaching threat.

-=-​

The Gearhead gripped her steering wheel like it was the only thing keeping her in this world as bullets rocked through her twitching body, her knuckles white under the now stained red gloves that covered them. Her vision was beginning to blur, but she was now close enough to make out the shooter. That bloody ginger, dead ahead and with a boulder right behind her.

Perfect.

"Trk... an rll" The gearhead managed to mumble with her ruined mouth.

Phyr, while not lifting her head for the world, nonetheless looked up at her in confusion. "What?"

"Trk... an RLL!"

Phyr finally figured out that the Gearhead was trying to get say "Tuck and roll", and realized what that meant. This vehicle was not stopping. Or rather, it was going to stop very suddenly very soon.

Opening her door and bailing out the side, Phyr hoped that the others were following suit behind her.

-=-​

Phyr came to a stop with a proper roll, disoriented and scuffed but otherwise fine. Kim was less graceful, but saved herself from most of the "road rash" by keeping her backpack between her and the ground. It was ruined beyond repair, but that beat getting skinned alive.

Des missed the warning entirely, not even doing so much as unbuckling her seatbelt.

And the Gearhead, choking on her own blood, bore down on her target.

-=-​

Carla turned her aim to the passengers as they bailed out; taking the move as everyone abandoning ship, and inferring that the jeep would soon slow to a halt without any further intervention.

This would be her first -- and last -- mistake.

-=-​

The ginger changed her focus right before the final stretch. Good. The Gearhead would live long enough to see that freckly bitch get hers.

The jeep plowed into Carla and smashed her against the boulder she stood in front of, instantly destroying her lower body and liquefying most of her internal organs. Amusingly, she still kept hold of the pistol through all this, but a fat lot of good it would do her now.

Her first reaction was the same as anyone would have in the situation; involuntary thrashings of pure agony. She attempted to scream, over and over again, but even if her lungs were still in any shape to do so the blood pouring out of her mouth would have reduced them to gargles.

Carla beat her hands against the crumpled hood in desperation, causing the pistol to go off a few more times in wild directions, but all that did was splash around the blood and viscera rapidly pooling around her. As she grew faint, and her vision began to blur, her unfocusing eyes turned up to see...

...The equally as bad-off driver, flipping her the bird with both hands.

Fuck you too, lady. Fuck you too.

-=-​

"Holy shit, way to start the party without us."

Moor circled around the boulder her ally had been pancaked against, taking in everything she had missed. She and Bertha had been busy with... other things when everything went crazy, and while not terribly late they still missed the opening act.

Bertha made a beeline for the bailing passengers, in her typical straightforward fashion, but Moor felt that the carnage back here needed a little once-over.

Carla gave just as much as she took, she'd give her that much. The driver, now slumped against her wheel, was a glorified bag of mulch. Not that her opponent fared any better, of course.

Moor turned back to her fallen ally, only to discover that she still somehow clung to life. Which was probably for the worse, all things considered. As leaking gas finally caught on something, and hints of flame began to lick through cracks in the hood, Carla weakly reached out to Moor.

"Help... me..."

Moor, after a moment of deliberation, took Carla's outstretched hand in both of hers.

And pried the pistol from her pale fingers, before letting it drop back down onto the glowing hood.

"Sucks to be you, kid."

Moor turned and left with the handgun, listening to the sounds of weeping and an increasingly prominent sizzle fading with each step. Truly, the luck of the Irish was with that one.

-=-​

Kim, taking a second to gather her wits, was filled with a sense of dread as a shadow engulfed her.

This was not helped at all when she turned to the source, and found exactly who she expected beaming down at her.

"Well?" Bertha asked, her huge hands on her even huger hips. "Are you ready?"

Kim was not. Kim was so, so not.

Regardless, she had to try.

Drawing her machete in a single practiced motion, Kim rose and lunged directly at her opponent. Fighting her foe unarmed would be like attempting to knock out a tree, but even the mightiest oak could take only so many chops before it fell.

Bertha was probably too slow to completely dodge the swing in time, so she did not even try. Instead she stepped in and stopped it at the source, knocking Kim's arm away at the wrist with a backhand. Then, palming Kim's forehead in her free hand, slammed her back down into the dirt.

Kim's world exploded into fireworks as the back of her skull bounced off the ground, her entire body flopping from the force of impact. As she shuddered and shook from the concussion, Bertha secured a better hold on her scalp and... set her feet.

Kim came to in pain, but not all of it where she expected. While her brain was pounding like a marching band, her legs were also screaming for help as well. As she looked down to figure out what was going on, she came to realize that Bertha was now standing on both her knees.

She began a plea -- containing what, she was not quite sure yet -- but it was drowned out by her own shriek as Bertha pulled her back by the scalp and her legs folded inwards.

-=-​

The ping of an aluminum bat coming down on Bertha's back was almost entirely drowned out by the screams, but in the grand scheme of things that gave it just as much gravitas as the blow itself. Pausing only for a moment to let the ineffectual results sink in, Bertha stood up and turned to face the new attacker.

"I hope you have something better than that." she mused to her silently panicking opponent.

Phyr did not.

At least, not yet.

Phyr flung her bat at the titan and hooked to the side, attempting to give her a wide berth as the weapon bounced uselessly off her chest. Bertha, after a small chuckle, followed behind.

Phyr had managed to scramble up next to Kim, flush and sweating from the pain, before she was seized by the ankle and drawn back kicking and screaming. Hoisted up to hang by her leg, Bertha then began to lay into her stomach like a sparring bag.

Phyr gagged and heaved as her insides churned, but was partially glad that it was playing out like this. The ox was so occupied with breaking her that she hadn't noticed what Phyr had grabbed while she was down.

Coughing up her breakfast, but all the happy for it, Phyr swung and embedded Kim's machete into Bertha's side.

-=-​

Bertha's blows paused for a second, but it took a few more swings for them to grind to a halt. Phyr was released as the mountain stumbled back to examine the damage, but she was far from done yet. Scrambling to her feet as she landed Phyr swung again and buried the blade in one of Bertha's calves, forcing her down onto one knee.

Seeing her chance, Phyr took her weapon on both hands and raised it over Bertha's head...

...but was forced to freeze as a shot rang out and a puff of dirt flew up next to her feet.

"Hoooold up now!" Moor shouted, as she finished rounding the wrecked jeep with pistol in hand. "Let's not do anything we'll come to regret here."

-=-​

Des came to in a confusing world full of heat and pain.

Not at all ready for the crash, the hippy girl was rattled unconscious and slumped down into her seat upon impact. The diminished status of her already small frame hid her well, leading to Moor overlooking the remaining back passenger entirely as she passed by.

She wasn't sure where even to start making sense of her surroundings, so for the most part didn't even bother. Wedged against a rock and a hot place, a now unidentifiable body weakly writhed amidst rising flames. Behind that the Gearhead shivered against her steering wheel; Des could not tell if she was still alive, but even if she was there wasn't anything she could do to help at this point.

Giving up the front for a lost cause, Des unbuckled herself and turned to check behind the jeep.

This was a more promising prospect... but not by much. Kim was in a sad state, staring up at the sky and trying her best not to pass out from the pain of her clearly broken legs. Phyr was doing slightly better; bruised and scuffed, but with the beastly woman known as Bertha at her mercy. This could all change in an instant, though, with the disturbing lady she was told went by Moor holding her at gunpoint.

Moor, of course, had her back turned to the vehicle.

As silently as she could, Des took solid hold of her crowbar and began to creep closer to the rear of the jeep.

-=-​

"I ain't giving you a second warning" Moor shouted, keeping her weapon on Phyr. "Drop the blade or things get nasty."

"I know how you are" Phyr replied, not moving an inch. "If I do that, what's to stop you from just shooting me anyway?"

"Absolutely nothing." Moor yelled back. "But if you make things difficult for me, I'm going to make them excruciating for you."

-=-​

As Bertha was forced to her knees, she was sure that she had finally been bested. Closing her eyes and mouthing a prayer, she waited for the final blow.

And waited.

And waited.

Confused, she opened her eyes and looked around. The woman who had played her hand so well was still poised for the decapitating blow, but something was stopping her from finishing the job. She soon found the cause of this: Little old Moor, keeping her at bay with the pistol.

Good girl, that one.

Admiring her companion's resourcefulness, Bertha was first to notice movement behind her ally. An up-until-this-moment forgotten woman, preparing to leap out of the ruined vehicle's back and club Moor from behind.

Feeling a new surge of adrenaline coming on, Bertha raised a pointing hand and started to shout a warning.

-=-​

"Behind-"

Many things began at once in this moment, and many things ended soon thereafter. Perhaps it would be easiest to go through them part by part.

Moor, quickly processing the warning, spun in place and took aim at the surprise attacker currently in a midair strike.

Phyr, seeing Moor turn away, started to bring her machete down to finish off Bertha.

And the Gearhead, with her last ounce of strength, opened and flipped a switch she had rigged up specifically so that her life's work couldn't be stolen by looters if everything went to hell.

That last one was probably the most important out of the bunch.

-=-​

The Jeep exploded in a ball of fire and shrapnel, catching completely off guard everyone who was not immediately incinerated.

Des, already airborne and traveling away from it, accidentally rode the shockwave and was thrown much further than expected. Landing on her face in a slide, she instinctually clutched at her burned back as the higher parts of her brain worked to come back on-line.

Moor was blown off her feet, the pistol flying from her grasp as she was pushed away from the explosion and onto her back. She was just far enough away to not be charred too bad, but her body was still peppered with bits of small shrapnel.

Phyr was knocked off balance, causing her downward slice to miss entirely. Seeing an opening, and being too large for the explosion to rock, Bertha rose with an uppercut to her captor's jaw. Phyr dropped her weapon as she crumpled to the ground, and Bertha scooped it up as she advanced.

-=-​

Moor's vision cleared to a welcoming sight.

True, most people probably wouldn't label a giant woman standing over them with a bloody machete "welcoming", but these were strange times.

"You okay, little one?" the colossus asked.

"Just peachy." Moor replied, sitting up with a wince. "How are you holdin' up, beefcakes?"

"I'll live."

Bertha offered a hand and, gladly taking it, Moor was helped to her feet. They surveyed the war zone around them for a moment, making sense of what was left.

"Dibs on the new girl." Moor finally said.

"Alright." Bertha responded, handing over the machete to her friend before they split up again.

-=-​

Des was in a bad place, writhing on the ground while trying to massage her crisped back. Things came into focus a bit more as she was kicked over to face upward and Moor sat down on her stomach; but when the machete came to rest on the dip beneath her throat, she began to miss the mindless agony.

"That was a good attempt," Moor purred, her eerily intense eyes making Des feel cold as they traveled up and down her despite the burns. "Wouldn't have pegged a little flower like you having the guts to try something like that."

The machete sunk slightly into her -- juuust enough to draw blood -- and began to travel downward. The pilfered blade sliced through her shirt and bra just as easily as it did her flesh, and by the time it finished it's trip to her stomach her clothes fell away and her upper body was open to the world.

"Color me interested", Moor continued, setting aside her weapon to lower herself down and pin her captive's arms. "I want to get to know aaaall about you..."

-=-​

Kim bit her lip and groaned, trying to hold back screams with every pull forward.

She had been all but forgotten in the chaos, and honestly for pretty good reason. With only two fighters for three targets priorities had to be sorted, and a newly-made cripple was probably the safest to ignore.

They were right. But they overlooked one thing.

Kim kept track of where the gun flew off to.

She just had to get to it. All she needed was those two to stay distracted long enough for Kim to drag her busted ass over there, and then things would start turning around real fast.

Moving as quickly as she dared against the twin threats of drawing too much attention and passing out from pain, Kim pulled herself closer and closer to her personal golden snitch.

-=-​

The world came back to the sound of a slap for Phyr, as her head was jerked to the side by a backhand. She was being held aloft by the collar of her shirt; loosely, but still high enough for only her toes to touch the ground due to how large the woman suspending her was.

"When does Lighthouse get here?"

"...Wha?" Phyr asked groggily.

"Lighthouse. When does she ride down with her cavalry?"

Phyr was hoisted up to be eye-to-eye with Bertha, her glassy stare against the warrior's stoked internal fires.

"When she arrives for her breeder, I will be ready. The day has finally come for the battle I deserve. I will break the queen over my knee, snap her limbs like twigs, and carry her ruined body back to mewl for mercy in front of her followers before digging into her empty socket and tearing her skull in half."

"Hate to break it to you..." Phyr said, finally catching up to speed, "...but the isn't coming. I'm actually disobeying her orders to try this myself."

Bertha's brow furrowed, in a mix of confusion and possibly worry.

"I somehow doubt that she could stand such cowardice."

Phyr, despite everything, couldn't stop her pained smile.

"I know, right?"

-=-​

Des wrestled and writhed against Moor's hold, but got the feeling that her struggles only pleased her dominator further.

"You're a lot more, ah, petite than what I usually go for..." Moor mused, in between licks up and down her exposed skin. "...but that's alright. It's always fun to bully a little twerp."

Des' involuntary gasps raised into a small shout of pain as Moor bit down on one of her breasts, drawing fresh blood and leaving nasty tears as she drew back without letting up.

The hippy girl's at first tiny pleas soon escalated into legitimate screams as Moor dug back into her, both figuratively and literally.

-=-​

With a sense of personal triumph, Kim's hand finally touched the cold steel she was waiting for.

Taking the object of her hopes and dreams in both hands, she painfully rolled over and examined the current situation. There was an important choice to be decided here, and it was up to her to make it.

Two targets. And while she could theoretically alternate between them, she would only have the element of surprise against the first chosen.

Almost every fiber of her being shouted one thing: Shoot Bertha. Shoot her until there were no bullets left, then crawl over and beat her with the handle. But was that truly the beat choice? After all, she was the most likely to shrug off a shot. And while at the moment she was just having a little chat with her opponent like they crossed paths on a midday goddamn stroll, the visceral tears and shrill screams coming from Moor and Des' direction spoke of a much more immediate problem.

She had to quash most of her gut instincts to do it, but she finally reached a conclusion. A dead or hobbled Moor was better in the long run than a mildly winged Bertha.

Swinging the sights over to her new target, Kim took careful aim and pulled the trigger.

-=-​

Moor ground against the shivering form below her, wanting to use the flowing blood as lubrication before it dried and clotted. The little flower girl was now covered with deep bite marks across her face, chest, arms, and stomach; each shudder and hitching sob sending liquid life flying off of her small but jiggling breasts.

In fact, the only part of Des' body not touched yet was her throat. But that was for dessert, and Moor wanted to finish herself before she finished her meal.

Arching her back as she ground harder, Moor could feel herself beginning to peak. It was coming, it was coming, it was-

As a bullet plowed through her back and exited out of her chest, Moor's body spasmed in several different ways.

Letting out a groan of pleasure and pain intertwined -- through teeth now stained with her own blood as well as her playmate's -- Moor drooped to the side and tumbled onto the dirty ground.

-=-​

Bertha and Phyr both turned towards the noise, just in time to see Moor fall and lay still.

Phyr turned back to her captor to let out a snide comment, but her world was once again destroyed by a headbutt before anything could get out.

Bertha was now racing a clock, and Phyr was something that could be put off for later.

-=-​

Kim steadied her aim and prepared to land a few more rounds into her prone target -- just to make sure -- but swept the gun around upon feeling vibrations rapidly approaching.

Oh god, how could something that big move that fast? She expected a reaction, but Bertha was on her now.

Kim got a single shot off, hitting Bertha in the shoulder to little effect, before a massive foot stomped down on her chest. Hearing the snapping of bones as well as feeling her chest cavity collapse in upon itself, Kim was paralyzed with pain but still clutched the pistol in both hands with a deathgrip.

What an... appropriate term.

Kim tried to bring up the pistol to shoot again; but she had apparently roused a beast, and the price for doing so was to be paid in flesh.

Clamping down on Kim's arms, with her foot still on Kim's collapsed chest for support, Bertha pushed back with her leg and pulled.

-=-​

It is somewhat difficult to properly convey the noise that followed.

Perhaps the closest onomatopoeia would be TNKKKCHH, but still so much is left out of that translation. The wetness. The companion ring of joints leaving sockets. And, of course, the all-too-encompassing silence which immediately follows such a dire reverberation. But there is no such thing as a perfect medium, so for now it will have to do.

Dead set on absolutely destroying her victim. Bertha tore Kim's arms right off at the shoulders and threw them away behind her. Kim could no longer scream -- due to her puréed chest cavity -- but her mouth opened and closed in disbelief as her limbs flew out of sight, still holding the weapon she had banked so much on.

Perhaps it was too much to worry about properly describing the noise. After all, only three were aware enough to actually hear it.

The victim, the torturer, and a ravaged, bloody woman now eyeing an item of great importance clutched between dead hands.

-=-​

"S...s-stop!"

Bertha, her seizing "opponent" in hand, rose and turned to examine the new voice.

It was the little, bespectacled woman who tried to blindside Moor. Her glasses hung crooked on her face, smeared with saliva and blood. Her left hand crossed her chest to cover her bare breasts; apparently, despite the madness all around, hanging onto a shred of modesty.

In her right hand, trembling with nervousness and terror, was the recently disarmed handgun.

Des barely stopped herself from taking a step back, her shaky aim growing even worse. "Please. Please! Just leave! I'll have to shoot you if you don't!"

Bertha paused for a moment, looking down at the ruined body gargling in her hand as she thought, then took another step forward.

"I have seen many warriors in my time, little girl."

Another step.

"Some great. Some pathetic. Many somewhere in-between."

Another step.

"You are none of those."

Another step.

Des was wracked with sobs as the woman drew ever closer, unbelieving of what was happening. "Why won't you stop? You could die!"

"To this?" Bertha replied, nodding at the gun. "Unlikely."

Another step.

"You are not a killer. You simply do not have it in you."

She wish she didn't with all of her heart, but Des knew where this was heading. It had to be stopped.

Squeezing her eyes shut and turning her head away, Des told herself that there was no other choice and began pulling the trigger.

-=-​

Des did not see what was happening -- and in no way wanted to -- but by the wet sounds of bullets hitting meat knew that her blind shots were hitting home.

After a few seconds of fire, sure that it was more than enough, she opened her eyes to see what she had done.

And began to cry even harder.

Kim, hoisted up between her and Bertha like a shield, twitched and sputtered weakly. Her body, already mangled, was now borderline inhuman with all of the entry wounds spattered wildly across her.

"However..." Bertha finished, "even the meekest of animals will lash out once if cornered."

The pistol dropped from Des' hands as she fell to her knees and began to weep, overcome with grief at what she had done. Bertha, finally reaching her, scooped up the pistol and tucked it into her waistline before unceremoniously dropping Kim's mangled form in front of the bawling girl.

"Once." Bertha repeated, before stomping down on Kim's upturned face. What was left of her body flopped one time then lay still; at this point not even having enough blood left for a decent puddle.

Bertha turned away from the two wrecks and focused on her next goal. There was one actual warrior left to deal with.

-=-​

"Unh..."

Phyr regained consciousness face-down on the ground, her head feeling like it was about to split. As she pushed herself up she felt something underneath one of her hands; upon inspection, it appeared that she was holding the aluminum bat again.

Phyr didn't have that when she passed out. What was going on here?

Looking up, she was given her answer. Crouched down and waiting, with her hands on her knees, was Bertha. Knowing that she now had Phyr's attention, she brought one hand up and beckoned.

How generous of her. This slaughter might kind of look like a fight.

-=-​

Phyr ran in with an overhead swing, knowing full well that if she had any chance of doing any real damage it would be to the head. Bertha apparently agreed; ready to catch the swing in the nook of her crossed arms, then stepping in to knee Phyr in the chest. Both allowed the bat to drop, with Phyr stumbling back as Bertha happily advanced.

Bertha began to throw alternating hooks, and Phyr's head jerked from side to side as the fists connected. Teeth rattled loose and flew as Phyr's face was pounded, scarlet spittle dripping from her swollen lips.

Bertha paused and Phyr swayed on her feet; up until this point mostly kept upright by the brute force of blows, her legs were now unsure what to do. They were not given much time to dwell on it, though, as Phyr was soon taken hold of once again.

One hand digging into Phyr's shoulder and the other wrapped around her neck, Bertha started to push and pull respectively. Phyr was more out of it than not at this point, but what little was left could feel the growing strain on her spinal cord. If this continued for much longer, her head would... would...

Losing the last shred of consciousness she had left, Phyr fell into what could very well be her final dreamless sleep.

-=-​

Bertha was disappointed in her foe giving up so early, but it was to be expected. Not many hung on until they were completely decapitated. It was what made those events so special, really.

Ready to wrap things up, she continued to add tension...

...until a stabbing pain hit her from behind, and she was forced to drop her opponent.

-=-​

With a scream, Des buried her crowbar bent edge first into Bertha's spine. She did not fully realize what this would do for a person, only that Phyr was in trouble.

Bertha fell to her knees and, in-between spasms, attempted to reach back to remove the embedded object. Des took this opportunity to dash around to her front, pick up the softball bat, and begin pounding Bertha's skull.

"LEAVE!"

Ping

"PHYR!"

Ping

"ALONE!"

Ping

Bertha fell back, coming to rest on the crowbar, but Des mounted her and continued beating away.

"DON'T!"

Ping

"YOU!"

Ping

"DARE!"

P-kttth

"HURT!"

Krk

"MY!"

Krkle

"FRIENDS!"

Sqssh

Bertha's head began to deform and crack, and her huge body rocked and bucked under the tiny girl. But as Des' frenzied assault refused to yield, the jerks and spasms eventually slowed to a halt.

Eventually realizing that she was just beating bits of brain into the dirt, Des wound down and tried to catch her breath. Finally understanding the full meaning of the cooling corpse underneath her, she smiled and whispered "I did it."

Then immediately afterwards threw aside the dented bat and broke down entirely.

"I did it." she sobbed, cupping her blood-stained face in horror. "I did it! I-"

"You sure did." growled a voice from behind, as the machete blade pressed up against her throat.

"You little bitch."

-=-​

Moor was beyond playing games now. In fact, she barely felt the usual glee as she pulled the machete and slit the flower girl's stupid little throat.

Des was still for a moment, unsure of what was just happened. Then, raising her hands to feel her neck, she began to scream.

Well, no, of course she couldn't scream. She tried to scream, but what she did was gurgle.

For a few seconds she attempted to pinch her throat closed again -- as if it was a problem that bobby pins could fix -- before collapsing face down on the corpse of Bertha. She was so small, and the body below her so large, that her head landed against Bertha's toned but now useless midsection. Shivering at the cold despite the desert heat all around her, Des' last moments were spent mouthing silent screams as she watched her own blood pool in the navel and flow between the abs of the Goliath she just slew.

-=-​

Moor gathered up phlegm and spat a loogie down onto the crisped back going through it's last spasms on top of her... friend. It wasn't fair. That tiny wench deserved to die a couple more times, and so much slower.

This venture was a complete bust. She didn't care about the future of humanity. She didn't care about founding a new or better tribe. Hell, she didn't even miss dickings hard enough to tag along for the breeder.

Ven could just fuck off forever with her boy-toy now, as far as she was concerned. At least someone would get something out of this.

Fuming silently to herself, Moor turned and just so happened to catch Phyr creeping towards her.

Phyr had awoken just in time to watch her closest friend die a quivering, pathetic heap.

Needless to say, she was not in the best of moods.

Her head still throbbed with every heartbeat, but she felt that she could still pull this off. Moor was probably much closer to her last legs. Hell, it was amazing that the psycho got back up at all.

Moor swung her machete downward with a roar of fury, but her movements were sluggish and Phyr easily stepped to the side in time. Moor attempted to follow with an upwards diagonal, but ducking and leaning away slightly allowed Phyr to avoid that too.

"Keep dancing... all you want..." Moor taunted between ragged breaths. "I only... have to get you once..."

This was true. If all Phyr did was stay here and dodge, it would only be a matter of time until she slipped up and became Slasher Movie Victim #7.

However, this was assuming that Phyr was not working towards an endgame herself.

Moor was caught by surprise as Phyr came even further in, lowering down to a crouch over the two corpses she was standing next to. Moor didn't quite understand the logic behind this, but was not exactly going to turn down an offering like that. Moor began to swing at the point-blank target, ready to bury her blade in the woman's scalp...

...then stumbled back as a pop rang out, the pistol Phyr just pulled out of Bertha's belt shooting another round into her torso.

"God... dammit..." Moor raged, dropping her weapon to clutch her stomach. "How many bullets does that thing hARGH!"

Phyr's aim dropped low and she fired again, turning one of Moor's feet into a red mist. As Moor fell forward to her knees, Phyr snatched up the discarded machete and forced her head up to look at her with the tip.

Moor had to stop a moment, to spit out the blood in her mouth, before continuing.

"We were ambushed... during the night... they took the breeder. Tracked them... to a cave. Ven went in... said that she could sneak past everyone by herself. Still waiting for her to come back... when you putzes showed up."

Phyr drew back, and Moor fell down to all fours.

"Lead me to this cave."

"You... kidding?" Moor asked with as much incredulity she could manage. "You blew open... one of my feet... you tactical taAAAH!"

It took a while, and a whole lot of pratfalls, but Moor eventually managed to hobble Phyr over to an out-of-the-way cave mouth.

Moor turned around to exactly what she expected: Phyr's pistol aimed directly at her head. With a gulp, and raising her remaining intact hand for a "hold up" gesture, the desperate woman began her final case.

"Listen. I... have no love... for Ven. Only reason... I came along... is dead. Let me leave... never see me again."

They stood there for a moment, Moor hoping against hope as Phyr mulled over her options.

Then slowly, Phyr lowered the gun.

"Damn right I won't."

Moor let out a sigh of pure relief, but the air was soon replaced by cold steel as Phyr stepped in and impaled her on the machete.

"Damn right."

-=-​

Moor clung to Phyr's shoulder as she was stabbed over and over; still trying to barter, as if it somehow wasn't too late to go back.

"Don't care..."

Skkkth

"...about Ven..."

Thhhp

"...help you..."

Ssslth

"...get her..."

ttthrrrip

"...please... do anything...."

Phyr halted her assault at this, pulling out the machete with a wet slurp and stepping back to allow Moor to once again fall to her knees. She looked up at her executor; and while her eyes still had that unnerving beadyness, they were now clouded over and softened. Despite her pleas otherwise, she was just about ready to be tucked into bed.

"You'd do anything?" Phyr asked?

"...anything..." Moor repeated dreamily.

Phyr leaned in on that desperate, pleading face and whispered "Can you bring Des back?"

Moor swayed for a moment, seemingly not understanding, before her head tilted slightly to the side.

"...who?"

Wrong answer.

Stepping back to get the most optimal arc, Phyr swung and buried the machete in Moor's mouth.

The blade plowed through her teeth, tore her cheeks, and sliced her tongue in two. The force that embedded itself in the back of her jawbone sent her flying, and she landed face up on the ground.

Staring at the ceiling, gurgling and sputtering in attempts to get air through all the viscera and shrapnel, she weakly brought her hands up in an attempt to remove the blade buried in her.

Only for them to flop back down limply as Phyr stomped on the embedded blade, pushing it the rest of the way through and severing the top half of her head from the rest of her body.

Her fresh corpse spasmed, but she did not feel it. Her ravaged lungs let out a final death rattle, but she did not hear it. The last thing she knew, as her tiny pupils finally widened with relaxation, were the feet of her killer walking away without so much as a glance back.

-=-​

Phyr ventured further into the cave, pistol ready and waiting.

At least she didn't have to worry about going in literally blind. A phosphorescent lichen covering the walls illuminated the tunnel with a dim green glow. Somewhat unnerving, but she supposed that any mutation that wasn't actively trying to kill her was a welcome one.

Turning a corner, she found the breeder. Maybe.

The figure was facing away from her and squatting; but it was also completely naked, and thus there was no doubt of the gender. Ven definitely didn't have that.

Phyr tried to recall the breeder's actual name -- so to call out to him -- but the figure noticed her and turned around on it's own.

This was definitely the man taken from camp, but even in this bad light he seemed... odd. His hair appeared a lot less full than she remembered, he was a bit scrawnier, and shadows played across his face in strange ways. Phyr knew that the runners only brought as many provisions as they could easily carry, but even if they straight-out starved him it didn't seem likely that he'd be wasting away yet.

"Hello", the breeder said.

"Uh, hi?" Phyr nervously responded.

"Hello. Hello. Heee-lo."

Turning away again, the breeder broke into a sprint further down the tunnel.

"Hello! Hello!"

Listening to the meaningless greetings fade away to echos, Phyr briefly wondered what the hell was wrong with him before pushing it aside and giving chase.

-=-​

There were many branching paths as they descended further and further down, but Phyr was never in any danger of getting lost. The breeder was moving at an odd pace; never too slow to be caught, but also never too fast to lose his pursuer.

Phyr had just begun to start putting two and two together when a body lunged out from another tunnel at a fork, tackling her to the ground.

Phyr realized that this was Ven and reacted accordingly, bringing up her gun to fire point-blank. But with a metallic glimmer her hand exploded into agony, and her index finger tumbled down to rest on the stone floor. She would be allowed to keep her weapon for now, but Ven would make sure that she could not actually use it.

Phyr scrambled away to get some distance, but a knife plunged through one of her retreating feet and pinned it to the ground. Out of ideas, she pounded ineffectually at her opponent until it rested the blade of a knife against her throat.

"Stop."

Phyr dropped her hand in defeat, knowing that she had been bested, and instead focused on looking over her enemy.

Ven... had seen better days.

Her clothes hung in tatters, at this point glorified rags. She was spattered with... cuts? Rashes? Burns? Whatever they were, they looked bad and possibly infected. The worst of the lot, on the side of her neck, was a nasty looking shade of purplish-black. And her eyes were... oddly shimmering. Had she been crying?

"Listen" Ven said, in-between pants. "We're leaving."

-=-​

It couldn't go down like this. After all she'd been through, and everything that was lost, Phyr refused to let this venture end without Ven's head on a stick.

"Lighthouse will never forgive you" Phyr spat up at the source of all her rage.

"You think I care?" Ven shot back. "After all this, I'll be happy just to get out of this he- this hel..."

The knife drew back as Ven, grimacing, brought her hands up to clutch at the wound on her neck. Phyr, seeing her opportunity, shoved Ven off her and got to work on freeing her foot.

Only to have the pistol --now held in Phyr's other hand -- shoved into her mouth.

"Oooh", Ven mumbled around the obstruction.

"You said it" Phyr replied, before opening fire.

-=-​

Ven was dead after the first shot, of course; the bullet severing her spine and leaving out the back of her head. But Phyr did not come all this way for just that. Removing the barrel from her slack mouth, Phyr unloaded a few more rounds into Ven's twitching body.

After she had her fill of that she "returned" the knife used on her foot, plunging it down into Ven's chest like she was readying a trial for the next king.

Ven's body, kneeling and broken, found an odd sort of equilibrium after all the damage done. It refused to topple and fall, standing tall like a macabre statue celebrating her death.

Phyr... liked that look.

Leaving it be, Phyr turned and headed on to wrap up the last loose end. That goddamn breeder better be worth it.

-=-​

Phyr found the breeder at a final dead end, in a tall, ceilinged room filled with the rustling of lichen. He had apparently been waiting for her.

"Hello." the breeder said.

"Hello yourself" she replied, and shot him in the knee. She was well past playing cat and mouse, and he didn't need to run for anything the girls back at home wanted him for.

As she stepped forward to claim her prize, she heard a few thumps behind her. She did not know what she expected to see when she turned.

But it wasn't this.

They may have been human. Once. But not any more. Pale and white, their smooth, featureless bodies lacked so much as a face. But that was not quite right. When it drew nearer she realized that she could see the makings of a face beneath its tintless skin -- eyes, nose, a mouth -- it had all just been covered and enveloped.

As one reached out, and grabbed hold of her gun arm while she was still frozen in shock, her body began reporting countless needles of pain where it clutched.

Her other arm was seized by a similar monster, and as her pistol fell from her slackening grasp she knew that she was trapped.

Desperate for any means of escape, her panicking gaze eventually turned upwards. It turned out that those rustles... were not what she was thinking. Completely covering the ceiling, the pale creatures crawled past one another like roaches.

"Hello."

Sobbing, Phyr turned her gaze back forward. Despite the bum knee, the breeder had managed to rise to his feet and began to make his way towards her. As he limped along more of the pale creatures fell from the ceiling and took hold of her, tearing away her clothing until she was as bare as the day she was born.

"Hello."

The breeder was right up on her now, and Phyr was now close enough to see many details she could have spent her whole life never knowing. His hair was falling out, nothing more than wisps of it remaining. His skin had begun to -- for lack of a better word -- expand, thin films now covering his nostrils and eyes. But she could still make out through the cover something else. Phyr thought that Ven's eyes were "shimmery", wavering in shape as if covered in tears. Now she could tell that the pupil was actually deforming as something inside the eye occasionally rolled over for a better position.

But the worst thing was what she could not actually see. As the breeder cuddled up to her, she could feel that he was... excited.

"Please." Phyr begged. "Please. Anything. Anything bu-"

"Hello" the breeder repeated as he jerked forward, and Phyr got in full what everyone was fighting so hard over.

-=-​

Phyr started to weep and scream, but her cries were cut off as the breeder's hands wrapped around her throat. As the hands passed her face she noticed that the breeder's palms were now covered in tiny barbs; this was apparently both how the creatures climbed so well and why their grips hurt so badly.

The spines were even worse digging into her tender neck, but all she could do was writhe in pain.

She mewled and whimpered, trapped in a cruel mockery of what the thing in front of her was originally intended to do. This could not possibly get any worse, she thought to herself, before the breeder locked lips with her and proved her wrong.

Phyr could feel an appendage extending from the breeder's mouth and into her; something along the lines of a tendril or proboscis. Gagging as it cut off her air, it forced its way down her esophagus and buried itself deep inside her. Was this creature like a giant mosquito, readying to suck out her innards?

As the breeder's thrusting escalated, and she felt the upper intruder begin to throb in an all-too-familiar fashion, she realized that it was worse. it was not to suck things out, but to pump things in.

Utterly dominated and broken, Phyr's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she faded away as the monster released it's payload in all the ways it could.

-=-​

The two guards fingered the triggers of their pistols nervously as they followed their leader further into the cave.

They were surprised when Lighthouse, a few days after Phyr and her crew stomped off, organized a "rescue party" to go out and find them. They were even more surprised that said party was only the two of them and Lighthouse herself. When one of them finally mustered up the courage to ask about this, Lighthouse told them that since they were present as Phyr made her choice it was only fitting that they also saw where it led her.

So far they had discovered the rest of Phyr's allies. Seeing what happened to them, they were not holding out much for the girl herself.

Lighthouse led point, carrying an old fashioned double-barrel hunting shotgun. The type of thing which reasoned that it didn't matter how long it took to reload if the one shot loaded was all you needed. Technically the two should have been in front of her -- being her personal guards and all -- but putting a spread weapon in the back was asking for disaster, and they were not exactly chomping at the bit to be first here regardless.

Lighthouse signaled to stop as a figure came to be in front of them. She was naked, and clearly worse for wear, but there was no mistaking who it was.

"Hello" Phyr said.

"Goodbye" Lighthouse responded, and fired.

-=-​

The three of them gathered around 'Phyr' watching it in morbid silence. The body was almost cut in half by the shotgun blast, but besides being unable to stand up it seemed not to be bothered.

"Hello" Phyr said again, reaching out a hand towards the nearest leg.

"Don't let it grab you." Lighthouse said quickly. "The barbs on it's hands are hollow, letting it inject it's seed even after losing other... methods."

"Hello."

"Why does she keep saying that?" one of the guards asked.

"The thing using her body now has access to her memories, but doesn't really understand them." Lighthouse elaborated. "It knows that's a sound humans make when they see each other, so it uses it as a lure. Like a hunter mimicking mating calls. My old crew used to call them 'Greeters' because of that."

Lighthouse motioned to the guards and, bringing out canisters of gasoline they were ordered to carry but until this very moment did not understand why, carefully doused the creature in accelerant.

"Hello" Phyr said again, not caring as her mouth and chest wound were filled with gas.

"Do you know what cartographers did back in the old days before the whole world was known?" Lighthouse asked, pulling a box of matches out of her pocket. "They didn't even bother trying to guess what was in the unexplored parts. They just doodled a mighty beast prowling that area and wrote 'Here there be monsters' underneath it."

Lighthouse struck a match, and tossed it onto the creature.

"Phyr called me a coward. She was right. Make no mistake, we are running from something."

Turning away from the bonfire, and motioning for the guards to follow as they left, she continued.

"The monsters from those old maps are returning to claim the land they once owned. We cannot stop them, only race ahead as the world behind us disappears. Because the day we lag behind is the day we fall off the world, never to be seen again."

Hard Times
Intro
“Well it looks like it's going to be a hard winter.“ Grayson Bloodstone thought to himself as he shivered slightly due to the growing chill in the air.

“God damn it all to hell!“ he thought sourly to himself as he recalled how human civilization and most of the human race had been pretty much wiped out by an alien virus back in 2016 as he made one final check of his fortified shelter before setting of to do some much needed savaging in the ruins of River Valley Ontario Canada.

Once he was sure that his shelter was secure he began to check over the weapons he had managed to loot from the ruined city during the hellish chaos of the Old World's end.

“I guess I should taken the old saying, 'Be careful of what you wish for' to heart.“ Grayson thought to himself as he took a moment to banish the memories of the hellish terror of the end of the Old World. Before the virus hit the Earth he had been a bitter angry man with a major grudge against the human race and so called *Civilization* for the shit ass life he had endured because of the called *Smart and Normal* people that had made the world the miserable shit hole it had been before the outbreak of the alien virus.

There had been many times in his life that Grayson wished he had the power to do away with the vast bulk of the human race regardless of sex, race, religion or nationality because of his misanthropic view of most the human race as vermin.

“Better get a move on if I'm going to get any scavenging done.“ Grayson muttered to himself as he recalled how the human race had been so radically altered by the alien virus as well as the limited use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons that had been deployed at the high point of the outbreak of the alien virus, as each nation thought the virus was a biological attack by an enemy nation and retaliated accordingly.

“I don't know if I should envy the dead men or not.“ Grayson thought to himself as he began the long march to the ruins of River Valley as he recalled how at the outbreak of the alien virus men, young men and boys died in droves as well as the spontaneous abortion of unborn male babies

“Fucking cunts!“ he thought bitterly to himself as he recalled how most of the femanazis and women had literally orgasmed as the death toll of human males world wide reaching into the eight figure marks within the span of a week.

“Well Karma is a hard and ironic bastard.“ Grayson thought to himself with a cold and evil smirk as he recalled how the alien virus underwent a mutation and began to take an even worse toll on human females regardless of age or race.

Where as the virus had just killed off most of the human males world wide before it mutated, the mutated version not only killed human females but messed up the now not so fun bits making most of the surviving human females sterile or worse, mutating them so that they would give birth to nightmarish freaks when ever they got knocked up.

Then to make matters worse for the few pitiful human survivors the alien virus underwent another mutation that not only mutated a large number of human survivors but also most of the plants and animals that had been spared the effects of the outbreak of the original virus.

Yes even he had been affected by the virus, before the outbreak of the alien virus Grayson had been a weak and sickly old man, disabled both in mind and body but after the outbreak of the virus he had been mutated into what he would call the Ultimate Alpha Male.

After waking up from the coma the virus had put him in Grayson not only found that his body had been healed of his physical and mental disabilities as well as being rejuvenated into a younger body but also he had gained some interesting psychic powers that would put any hard core Sith lord to shame.

But the most starling of his mutations he found was the fact that he was very fertile; or so he believed because his sex drive was not only on par with a young man just into puberty but his sex drive was also enhanced so that he was constantly aroused and much to his surprise after he had mugged the monk, bashed the bishop, pulled the pope he had cummed quite literally a river.

Grayson stopped walking and found himself a small out of the way place in the woods, sat down and began to roll a much needed joint to help him relax, not only because of his increased sex drive but also to help keep his emotions on a more even keel.

“You know when I think about what the world has become because of the radiation from the nukes the contamination from the bio and chem weapons, not mention the ragged and some what insane human survivors, mutant freaks and crazed gangs of female rapists I really can't say that I would really want things to go back to the way they were.“ Grayson thought to himself as he finished rolling up his joint.

“Even though I'm a bad ass version of Mad Max on mega-roids I'm not stupid enough to think that I'm invincible.“ Grayson mused to himself as he lit up his joint and took a powerful toke from it as he could not help but to feel truly alive now that the only law was from the end of a gun and that so called human *Morality* was whatever a person wanted it to be regardless of what anyone else had to say about it all.

“You know even though it's pretty much kill or be killed there is a stark beauty and purity to this new world.“ Grayson thought to himself as he began to relax as he continued to smoke his joint as he recalled how he had been forced to do away with his old morality in order not only to survive the unimaginable hardships of this new, brutal and harsh world as he recalled the number of humans and mutants he had killed to not only survive but remain free and unraped by the loony female rapists, human or otherwise.

After he finished smoke his joint Grayson gathered up his weapons and supplies and set off towards the ruins of River Valley with a spring in his step and joy in his heart as he imagined the blood and violent battles ahead of him as he struggled to survive for a moment longer in a world that would kill him in an instant or worse if he did not remain at the top of his game.

After a thankfully uneventful hike from his fortified shelter to the ruins of River Valley, Grayson felt himself becoming restless with excitement as he crossed into the outskirts of the ruined city.

“Yep, looks like the fun and games is going to start early today.“ he thought to himself as he could feel the eyes of the city's inhabitants, human or otherwise, watching him.

“Right, game time!“ Grayson thought to himself as he stilled his mind, ducked into the pitiful remains of a Robin's coffee/doughnut shop, and mentally tripped his psychic invisibility that not only fulled the brains of most living being into not seeing him but also fooling their ears into not hearing him. This particular psionic power had saved his ass more times then he could count in a thousand life times.

However this seemingly godlike ability was not fullproof. Living beings could track him by his scent if their sense of smell was sharp enough, as well as the fact that some mutants were immune to his psionic invisibility; because their brains were different enough not to be fooled by his mind fuckery, or that their senses of sight and hearing were different enough that they could easily detect him.

Even with this limitation his psychic invisibility had dramatically increased his chances of surviving and remaining free where an unmutated human male would have been killed or worse by the mutants and surviving normal humans.

As he made his way out of the ruined Robins Grayson saw a mutant who's unmutated origin could not be determined by him.

“You are one ugly fucker 'aint you.“ Grayson thought to himself with a semi feral smile on his face as he saw that the mutant in question stood at a height of five feet seven inches or so it seemed due to the mutant being some what hunched over.

The next thing Grayson noticed about the mutant was that it was completely hairless and that it had a slimy looking reddish pink skin and two long and powerful looking arms and legs.

“Oh great a fucking Brain Eater or a mutated offshoot!“ Grayson thought to himself with some alarm as he saw that the head of the mutant in question had a large mouth that was lined with what looked like three rows of razor sharp shark's teeth, no nose and that everything above the two slits that served as the mutant's nose was nothing more then exposed, slimy brain matter.

“If this is a *Normal* Brain Eater then it will be alone unless it's getting close to their breeding season.“ Grayson thought to himself as he felt his stomach lurch as he recalled how he had the misfortune of bearing witness to a swarm of male and female Brain Eaters in a massive orgy.

Luckily for him the mutant freaks were more interested in spawning then tearing him to pieces and he was able to escape without mishap other then being mentally scared for life.

“Ok snap out of it dumb ass!“ Grayson thought to himself as he gave his head a shake to banish that horrific image to the dark, dank recess of his mentally scarred mind as he saw the long slimy, muscular tongue of the Brain Eater flick in and out of it's misshapened maw and saw that at the end of it's tongue was the Brain Eater's main killing weapon: A thick, razor sharp barbed bone spur that it would ram into the skull and brain of it's luckless victim before using it's teeth and powerful jaw muscles to crack open it's prey's skull it get at it's yummy brain matter.

“Ok stay mother fucking frosty you dumb ass!“ Grayon thought to himself as he was struggling to keep his nearly crippling terror in check, because he knew that trying to run from a Brain Eater was the stupidest thing any dumb fuck could do. Brain Eaters not only had the raw, explosive speed of a jack rabbit on speed but also the agility and leaping power of the same.

“Damn it!“ Grayson snarled to himself as he found his waking mind being filled with strange, inhumanly alien thoughts and emotions which told him that me was most likely picking up some kind of psychic static from the Brain Eater. Which would go a long way in explaining how a Brain Eater was able to so ruthlessly and relentlessly track it's pray.

With that realization in mind Grayson took a deep breath and slowly let it out as he mentally built a blank stone wall in his mind; which lent credence to his theory about Brain Eater's being able to psionically track their prey as the Brain Eater seemed to look around in confusion.

Grayson estimated the distance between himself and the Brain Eater seemed to be about fifty or so meters between them as he slowly took aim with his purloined police pistol, the Brain Eater becoming increasingly agitated as Grayson kept the mental construct of the blank wall in the forefront of his contuse mind.

“EAT IT FUCKER!“ Grayson thought to himself with a savage joy and fired off three quick shots just as the Brain Eater sensed his decidedly hostile thought towards it; but before it could act the .40 cal rounds tore into it's exposed brain and blasted apart it's head in an explosive spray of blood and shredded gray matter.

“YA!“ Grayson thought to himself with a savagely pleased-as-pie smile as the Brain Eater collapsed to the dirty, cracked street. It was a well known fact to anyone who had survived for any amount of time in the savage New World that a head shot to a Brain Eater was fastest and most effective way of killing it.

“OH SHIT!“ Grayson thought to himself as his blood thirsty enjoyment turned to a confused horror as he saw the Brain Eater's head began to regenerate at an alarming rate.

“Time to beat the feets!“ Grayson thought to himself as he turned and raced for his life; realizing that with this new breed of Brain Eater that the deadly, dangerous post apocalyptic world had just became all the more deadly and dangerous.

Here's the second chapter of my story, I want to thank Sickerton for spell checking and what not

Hard Times

Chapter 2

After he had put a great deal of distance between himself and the mutated Brain Eater, Grayson took shelter in the ruined remains of a drugstore.

“Well this just keeps getting better and better!“ he thought sourly to himself as he created a joint out of thin air (thanks to his psycho-creative powers) and lit it up as he did his best to relax as he was pondering what he had learned about the mutated Brain Eater.

“Well I should not be all that surprised that there would be an upgraded Brain Eater, for the lack of a better term, given the fact that random mutation is a cold hard fact of life these days.“ Grayson thought to himself as he exhaled the spent pot smoke from his lungs.

After he finished smoking his joint Grayson took his canteen, opened it up and took a long drink of the some what tepid water.

Well might as well have something to eat before I get to the scavenging, because I have this feeling I'm going to need all of my strength for what is to come.“ Grayson muttered himself as he took off his large backpack, opened it up, and took out a zip-lock bag filled with dried rat jerky.

“Shit, you know this reminds me of my kinky post apocalypse stories I use to write before the world went tits up on the platter.“ he mused to himself as he opened up the bag of rat jerky and began to eat as he felt unusually hungry.

Suddenly he heard a very feminine scream that nearly made him choke on his mouthful of rat jerky, he quickly shoved the bag of dried rat meat back into his backpack and re-slung it over his shoulders as he grabbed his stolen police handgun from it's holster around his waist.

“OH FUCK!“ Grayson thought to himself as he looked our of the shattered windows of the drug store and saw what appeared to be a normal looking human girl who had fallen to the ground as a gang of mutant humans gathered around her.

“Just walk the fuck away, this is not any of your concern.“ Grayson though to himself as he saw that the human mutants were all female-ish as they slowly approached the human girl who was dressed in tattered rags and a crude iron collar around her thin neck.

Grayson did not need his psionic powers to know that the human girl was an escaped slave of the mutant females and that she was in for a long , hard and very slow death by sado-cruel rape at the hands of the mutant females.

Grayson knew if he intervened that he might have a fairly good chance of killing the mutant human females because they would be damn surprised to see an unmutated human man.

But on the other hand he knew he ran the risk of being killed or enslaved as breeding stock to the mutant females, which he had taken great pains to avoid ever since the end of the Old World.

“Well there is also the fact that before the Old World went up in smoke the fucking cunts treated men like shit, as well as the fact that the few useless vag beaiers that I had dated fucked me over, so I'm not really all that inclined to risk my ass for a human female.“ Grayson thought to himself as four of the six mutant female had grabbed the normal human girl by her arms and legs and were holding her down as the other two mutant females began to uncoil some crude rope.

Grayson looked at the young human girl and saw that she looked to be anywhere from fourteen to twenty years old; but he could not be sure due to the fact that the human girl was badly malnourished, and that she bore the scars of past tortures and most likely rapes at the hands of the mutants who had enslaved her.

The next thing he noticed about the human girl was that she had long, tangled, dirty blood-red hair and light jade green eyes that were filled with horrified terror as the two mutants with the rope began to tie her hands and legs together.

“God Damn It!“ Grayson thought to himself as he realized that -- despite the years of mistreatment at the hands of his fellow humans and human females in particular before the end of the Old world -- he could not in good conscience allow this girl to suffer any more at the hands of her captors.

“YO HO, HO AND A BOTTLE OF JACK BITCHES!“ he shouted as he stepped out of the shattered window of the drug store and took aim with his hand gun on what appeared to be the leader of the band of mutant females.

As was expected, not only were the mutated human females surprised his his appearance but also the bound human girl as he pulled the trigger on his hand gun which send a .40 cal round into the left lung of the leader of the mutants; which only increased the shocked state of the five remaining mutant females.

“You snooze you lose!“ Grayson said as he quickly took aim at the closest mutant female to him and fired twice into her chest then quickly shifted his aim to the next mutant female and plugged her twice in the chest.

Unfortunately for him, the three remaining mutant females snapped themselves out of their shocked state and began to close in on him to try and capture him.

All Amy Snow could do was watch as the human man jammed his hand gun into the face of one of the mutants that had captured her and blew her head off in a spray of shattered bone, spraying blood and shredded brain mattered as two other two mutant females tackled him to the ground.

“MOTHER FUCKER!“ Grayson snarled as he felt one of the mutant females trying to grab him by the balls as the other mutant female was wildly punching him in the face. He snapped his teeth on the throat of the mutant female that was trying to crush his balls and savagely tore her throat out in a spray of hot blood that painted his face red as the last mutant female got him in a chokehold and was fanatically trying to choke him into unconsciousness.

“GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME YOU FUCKING CUNT!“ Grayson screamed in rage. He managed to get the mutant girl pinned under his left arm, but he felt himself become light headed due to his growing lack of oxygen, and violently slammed his left elbow in the mutant's solar plexus which made her gasp and increase the tightness of her hold around his throat.

With a strength he never knew he had Grayson staggered to his feet as his vision was starting to fate to black as he manged to line up his left elbow with the mutant's bruised solar plexus and throw himself down to the ground with the mutant under him as the force of their impact on the ground drove his elbow into the mutant's solar plexus, shattering it.

Grayson began to breath in heaving gasps of air as the mutant with the shattered solar plexus began to gag due to her inability to draw into a breath because not only due to her shattered solar plexus but also because of her ruptured diaphragm.

After he managed to get his breathing under control Grayson picked up his dropped hand gun and was about to shoot the dying mutant females in the head; when he realized that would be a waste of ammo, and took out a well worn bush knife and slit the throats of the dying mutant females.

“Well, well, looks like you are in a bit of bind eh?“ Amy heard the man say, after he had slit the throats of the dying mutants that had enslaved and tortured her.

“You don't say much do you?“ Grayson said as he began to cut the ropes that held the girl fast and he was not all the surprised that the girl backed away from him after he had cut her free.

For a moment both Grayson and Amy looked at one another, trying to figure out where to go from there. “Look kid, I don't know who you are or where you are from but you're on your own now. I suggest you take what weapons you can from these dead bitches and find a place to lay low for awhile.“ Amy heard the unnamed man say to her as she was in a state of shock; not only because of the terror at the thought of being raped once more or worse by the hands of the mutants that had captured her, or of the bloody violence she had bore witness to as the unnamed man killed the mutants, but also the fact that there was a real live human man talking to her.

Grayson could see that the girl was in a deep state of shock, but as much as he was tempted to try and comfort the brutalized girl he got the feeling that because of her past mistreatment that she might freak out on him.

“Fuck it, I'm out of here.“ Amy heard the nameless man say; which filled her with relief that he was not going to further brutalize her, but also filled her with terror at the thought of being abandoned by him to take her chances all alone in the ruined city.

“WAIT! DON'T LEAVE ME!“ she shouted and watched as the nameless man gave her a hard look that frightened her.

“Look kid I don't need you or want you but I'm not going to leave you all by yourself here, are there any settlements around here that might take you in?“ Grayson asked the nameless girl as he was wondering if he was going to regret his decision later.

“Umm... There's a small village around here they might take me in.“ Amy said as she was wondering if the nameless man was being serious or not about finding her some place to live, since her village got wiped out by the mutants who had made her life a living hell since that fateful day.

Grayson could see that whoever this girl was that she was telling him the truth, as well as being badly frightened by him because she had never seen a real live man before today. Or at least appeared to be, judging by the way she was having a hard time looking him in the eyes.

“Ok, so where is this village?“ he asked her as he was wondering if he should trust her or not because he had seen the bad ends that had come to a few unmutated men he had come across over the long years since the end of the Old World and he had no desire to meet a similar fate.

“I think it's somewhere north of here.“ Amy said as she was having a hard time keeping calm because of the stories she had heard about men from the time of the Old World which made her wonder if she would have been better off with the mutants that had enslaved her or not.

“Ok then. First off we'll find a place to rest and have something to eat, you look like you need it.“ Grayson said to the girl who gave him a mixed look; of hope that she was going to be fed, and of fear that she would have to pay for her food with her badly abused body.

“Well let's get a move on then.“ Grayson said as he was wondering why in the hell he was going out of his way to look after the young girl.

“Say girl, what's your name?“ Grayson asked as he kept a sharp eye out not only for mutants and what not but also a safe place to rest, because he was not sure how much more walking the girl could take given her weakened and abused condition.

'A-A-Amy, and yours?“ Amy stammered slightly as she found herself watching the nameless man for some reason other then making sure he was not going to rape and murder her.

“I'm Grayson, do you know if there is a lot of mutants in this city?“ she heard Grayson say to her as she was torn between staying close to him so he would protect her and keeping her distance in case he would turn on her.

“I don't know, I was told by the village elder that the city was filled with mutants.“ she said to Grayson as she kept as close to him as she felt comfortable with.

“I see.“ Grayson said as he saw what looked like an old police station up ahead and came to a stop to check if anyone was using it as a base or not .

“What's wrong?“ Amy asked as she saw Grayson looking at the building that was ahead of them; fearing that they were going to be attacked, as well as feeling the pains of hunger and the need to sleep given the ordeals she had been through in the last day or so.

“Come on, we are going another way.“ Grayson said. He had a bad feeling about the police station ahead of them; even though he could not see if anyone or anything was living, his finely honed combat instincts were screaming at him to get the hell out of the area as fast as he could.

After what seemed like forever and a day to Amy she saw Grayson smile, which not only peaked her interest but also made her feel even more fearful for some odd reason.

“Ok, I think we can rest here.“ Grayson said to Amy, just about ready to collapse all on her own as she swayed unsteadily on her feet.

“Ok.“ he heard her say with a worn out tone of voice as he was leading her towards a small two story building that seemed to have stood up well to the test of time as he could not psionically detect anything in the sturdy looking structure.

“This seems like a safe place.“ Amy heard Grayson say to her after they made their way inside the building, and watched as he took off his backpack and pull out two well worn flashlights.

“Here. Don't worry, the batteries are still good. “ Grayson said to Amy as he gave her one of the salvaged flashlights. He watched with amusement as Amy turned it on; illuminating the relieved look on her dirty, grimy face.

“Looks like this was some kind of storage building.“ Amy heard Grayson say to her as she moved a little closer to him; her fearful mind imagining mutant monsters lurking in the shadows of the darkened building ready to pounce.

“Hey, have something to eat.“ Grayson said to Amy, holding out a bag of dried meat towards her after they had settled down to rest.

She took the bag and began to eat; she was starving, since she had been rarely fed by the mutants that had enslaved her.

“Easy now or you will make yourself sick.“ Grayson warned Amy but he could not blame her for stuffing her face. He could hear Amy's stomach growl from where he was, which told him that it had been some time since the poor abused girl had last had anything approaching a proper meal.

“Thank you.“ Amy said in between bites of the rat jerky; feeling slightly more relaxed now that she was free from her captors as well as eating after such a long time near starvation.

“No problem, kid.“ she heard Grayson say to her in-between drinks from his canteen. Any was still not entirely at-ease, though. She had next to nothing to repay this man's kindness with. Would the price for his protection and provision be her body?

Amy took the downtime to really look over Grayson; and even though she really could not see too much of him due to the darkness of the ruined building that they had taken shelter in, she could make out enough to determine that he was at least fairly handsome.

“So Amy, can you tell me more about this village we are looking for?“ Grayson asked as he held out the canteen for Amy to take a drink. He saw the way she had been looking him over; which made him wonder if she thought he was going to rape her, or that she was going to spread her legs for him in order to buy his protection and provision. The idea put a rueful smirk on his hard face.

“Well I heard that the village we are looking for is called Haven, and that it's a well protected village. “Amy said as she took the canteen from Grayson and took a long drink of the water, which was tepid but still the best tasting water she had ever drank to her thirsting body.

“Really? how long ago did you hear about this village?“ Grayson asked. Considering the hostile world they lived in, there was a good chance that any given village could be wiped out overnight by mutants, raiders or random mutant disease outbreaks.

“Umm, I'm not sure... I think a year and a half ago.“ Amy said with a submissive tone of voice; Sure that Grayson would be mad at her because she was unable to give a decisive answer to his question, because it had been such a long time since the mutants attacked her village and she had been enslaved.

“Really?“ Grayson said, wondering how long it had been since Amy had been enslaved by the mutants and why she seemed to be growing uncomfortable.

“Well Amy, if the village still exists we'll find it.“ he replied with a confident tone of voice.

Once they had eaten their fill Grayson unhooked a well worn sleeping bag from his backpack and laid it out on the dirty floor of the ruined building. “ Get some sleep, you have had a rough day. “ Amy heard Grayson say to her with a calm tone of voice; which both thrilled her that she had someone who was looking out for her, and yet terrified her since she still did not trust him to not strike as soon as her guard went down.

Grayson could tell that Amy was too frightened of him to get any sleep, so he formed a psionic connection to her troubled mind and began to stimulate the sleep center of her brain. He watched silently as she slowly nodded off and drifted into sleep.

Once he was sure that Amy was asleep he severed the psi link between them and put himself in a state of watchful sleep, which would allow his mind and body to rest while remaining alert for any possible attack.